The Bookseller – News – Ingram invests in NFT e-book company aiming to let readers ‘truly own digital books’

Ingram Content Group is investing in Book.io, a company making e-books available on the blockchain where they can be sold as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

According to Book.io, turning e-books into NFTs — a one-of-a-kind digital certificate of ownership for a virtual or physical asset — “will allow readers to truly own the digital books they purchase” instead of the current licensing model. 

The company says this will enable an “entirely new secondary digital market” where publishers and authors can earn royalties and leverage new author-to-reader direct engagement channels.

After closing a round of seed funding, president and chief executive officer of Ingram Shawn Morin said: “Ingram Content Group is excited to join with Book.io in pioneering new supply-chain models for e-book delivery that take advantage of the security of blockchain technologies, the promise of Web 3.0 and innovative commercialisation models based on NFTs.”

He said that Book.io “naturally aligns with the global reach of our business and our mission to provide the infrastructure and services necessary to help content reach its destination, from content creators to consumers”.

US-based Book.io has said it will work directly with Ingram’s vast digital and physical infrastructure to create NFT e-books and audiobooks.

Using Ingram’s print-on-demand service, Lightning Source, Book.io will bundle NFT e-books with “bespoke printed physical books”, a scheme named Mint & Print, allowing the ability to print singular physical books based on NFT e-book ownership and deliver those printed books within 48 hours anywhere in the world.

Joshua Stone, chief executive of Book.io, said: “The team and I are super excited about this investment. 

“We believe that the golden era of digital books has only just begun, and a partnership with Ingram will give us the opportunity to scale in order to meet the overwhelming demand we are experiencing, and expand our platform to give digital ownership.”